Page 56 of Burning Secrets

Focus. Rio ran back to him. “I found the canister. It’s empty. Not sure if it emptied in the crash or?—”

“How big is it?”

“About the size of a fire extinguisher.”

“So, nine liters? Yeah, that’s about the size of one of the canisters,” Crew said.

“These things only have about a mile range,” said Hammer. “So the drone driver has to be around here somewhere.”

“And he’d want to make sure he delivered the payload,” said JoJo. She stood behind them, a little stricken.

“Okay, listen, smokejumpers, get into the homes, tell the people to stay inside.”

“We should burn the field,” said Logan. “Keep it from spreading.”

“We need to talk to them, tell them what’s happening,” Vince said. “We can’t just burn their food supply.”

“Yes—go. Talk to them.” Rio looked at Crew. “You, me, and”—he pointed to Hammer—“you. Get back in the chopper. Let’s see if we can find them.”

He handed Crew a weapon from his shoulder holster. “Do not shoot unless you are shot at.”

“I remember my training.”

Rio nodded, then took off for the chopper, Crew behind him. He and Hammer climbed into the back.

Hammer hooked in but sat on the edge, again in some war movie.

Crew sat at the other edge of his seat, belted in, but opened the door.

Dodge took off.

As they rose, Crew spotted the team running toward the houses.

And it just hit him—the spread of evil. It landed on the living, infected them without knowing, and it felt so unfair.

So brutally wrong.

So maybe, just like he’d said to JoJo, he was the good guy. Should start believing that.

Dodge soared over the forest—thick, dense, and unforgiving. He hadn’t a hope of finding Viper or Jer or any of the other SOR members.

Maybe they’d already escaped.

Dodge angled them down the road, maybe thinking the same thing. No grimy truck or even mud-splattered ATV appeared, escaping the scene of the crime.

The firefighters had emerged, and Crew watched from afar and a thousand feet up as they lit a fire at the edge of a vegetable crop. He couldn’t make them out from here, but it seemed that they positioned themselves along the edge of the fire, using their shovels to keep it from escaping.

A man and woman had come out into the field, riding four-wheelers, driving the cattle toward a barn nearer the cluster of homes.

They’d have to burn that field too.

He hung on, a little sick.

The smoke rose, cluttered the sky, picked up by the wind and spread out over the property. Dodge angled around the fire and headed north to where the road disappeared into the woods.

He finally turned around at a ranch where a woman and a boy, maybe age ten, came out of the house, cupping their hands over their eyes.

He hoped Hammer didn’t wave with his gun hand.

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